by now everyone's heard and perhaps commented on mel gibson's drunken tirade. i, myself posted the following comment on saur's blog:
i've liked some of mel's movies, mostly Braveheart. I didn't care for the gore of Passion yet I didn't see anything in the movie as anti-semitic. Being a born & raised Catholic, i was never taught that the Jews caused Jesus' death.
the thought that crossed my mind when i heard the horrible things allegedly spewed from mel's mouth was that many saints had huge vices they had to overcome and renounce to finally become better people.
here's a brief bio on Saint Paul:
"Jewish Talmudic student. Pharisee...Saul the Jew hated and persecuted Christians as heretical, even assisting at the stoning of Saint Stephen the Martyr. On his way to Damascus to arrest another group of Christians, he was knocked to the ground, struck blind by a heavenly light, and given the message that in persecuting Christians, he was persecuting Christ. The experience had a profound spiritual effect on him, causing his conversion to Christianity. He was baptized, changed his name to Paul to reflect his new persona, and began traveling and preaching. Martyr."
if Saint Paul started out as a bigot full of hatred, perhaps there's hope for today's bigots to repent and change. Perhaps this arrest could be a life changing event (like Saul being struck blind) to give mel the wake up call he surely needs.
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7 comments:
Mel's episode is embarrassing. It made me sad to hear about the things he said. I hope he doesn't actually feel that way in his heart, but like you said, maybe this will be a wake up call for him to change.
I have my fingers crossed for your yard makeover!!!
Poor Mel.... it's such a shame he didn't have an epiphany after making "Man Without A Face", and before this media coverage.
Hollywood has too much to say about things they simply do not know and/or understand.
I though Passion was to gruesome, it was like it focused on displaying as much blood as possible.
At the movie theater, where I watched it, a man had a heart attack at the beginning of the movie. NOT a good sign...
Mel is a good actor. When it comes to being a public person, I'm not so sure...
This isn't the first time Mel has made anti-semitic comments. He's also made homophobic comments in the past which caused far more uproar than these current comments.
Personally, I think alcohol loosens the tongue and reveals what is truly in a man's heart. And he was making a mini-series on the Holocaust?
Of course, he's apologetic to the Jewish community. He wants his career in Hollywood to continue.
Call me a cynic if you like but the only empathy I have is for him is that he is obviously losing his battle with alcoholism.
I responded to a similar post over on Barbarafromcailfornia's blog. Therefore, because I am lazy and my opinion hasn't changed over that last few days, I am blatently plagiarizing myself:
I have to be careful not to get on my soapbox here...
I agree that Gibson is battling alcoholism and that his anger may well be the manifestation of unresolved issues that may also be driving him towards alcohol. Granted.
However, alcohol releases one from inhibitions. Gibson may not have said those things in public sober, but he thought them. Furthermore, my father (the contributor of my Jewish half) told me of Gibsons father and that he was (is?) an affirmed anti-semite and that Gibson made it publicly clear that he was not of the same ilk.
Perhaps not so much. So to the questions,
second question first: Is he truly sorry? Yes, he's sorry he got caught, sorry he has to deal with the backlash and perhaps sorry for what he said because he doesn't want to mean it. How can he demonstrate it? He can't do it overnight. It will take time and although having money may help, he'll need to acquire many qualities that money just can't buy.
It will take time and work. Of course, dealing with the demon alcohol is a given. Should he be forgiven? I'm not sure what that looks like. I guess I have forgiven him, but that wasn't much of a stretch - I didn't take it personally in the first place. If he is truly sorry for what he said, then it will be necessary for him to forgive himself. If he does that, he will demonstrate it.
~Mike
PS: It's only a few hours till... "And the winner is..."
*Don't forget to thank the accademy*
~Mike
Did you win??
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